His death is still a mystery for his grieving family members. Holton's parents were told by a
commanding officer that foul play was not suspected, they said. An autopsy has been
scheduled for Monday, Nov. 18.

On Sunday, pictures of Holton were lying on the dining room table inside their home, where an American flag fluttered outside in the strong breeze. A yellow “Our Son Is Army Strong” sign was standing in their garden -- meanwhile Tom and Linda Holton were left to figure out when they would be able to bury their child.

The day of his death, Linda Holton received a call from his girlfriend, who was wondering if she had heard from Shane. She received the horrible news hours later.

It all feels like a dream, she said, and she's still in disbelief. Shane Holton had no history of significant medical issues, they said.

Tom Holton, Shane's father, said Shane was happy in his relationship, having dropped off his girlfriend of more than one year at the airport days prior to his death, and enjoyed the intelligence work he was doing that led him at times to leave base at the drop of a hat.

“It was all pretty secretive stuff,” said Linda. Tom Holton said that when they went to visit their son in Alaska: “We drove by and he said that building (is where he worked). I think he liked the fact, 'I don’t have to tell you.'"

Tom Holton also reflected on those first early days with infant Shane. At the time, he worked for General Motors in Pontiac, and would drive straight to Hurley Medical Center after his shift, day after day, tracking Shane's progress. Following 121 days in the hospital, doctors let him go home.

“We were always protective of him,” said Linda Holton. “When you almost lose a baby and then he makes it, you’re pretty protective.”

The skinny kid with coke-bottle glasses and what Linda called "stick out ears" was slow to catch up in stature to other kids, but Holton eventually grew – both in size and in generosity. He was remembered by many Sunday by his giving heart.

Tom Holton described the young Shane as a quiet, smart kid who knew how to get his way without doing a whole lot of talking.

“He grew out of that,” his father said.

Shane Holton always had a smile on his face and became quick to make friends, especially at the Goodrich skeet shooting club at school or working at the Grand Blanc Huntsman Club.

Justin Broecker, a 17-year-old senior at Goodrich High, said Holton was always willing to lend a helping hand with advice for younger shooters, and was fun to hang out with at the club.

“Shane was probably one of the most intelligent, smartest, biggest-hearted people I have ever met,” he said. “He was a huge inspiration to me.”

Lindsey Conley, an employee at the club, became a bit of mother hen to Holton after meeting him at the club where he worked as a trapper, and the pair hung out during his down time.

“I loved him. He was like my son," she said, her eyes watering. “He was a good kid, passionate with everybody."

She recalled Shane asking her questions about her husband Jason’s time in the Army.

“If someone needed help, he would do it or find a way to get it for you," she said.

Holton was teaching Conley how to shoot skeet. In their friendship, she found a confidante who was outspoken and loud at times, but he also carried a patient, calm and respectful demeanor.

“It is disbelief, because he is so young,” she said of hearing about his death from club manager Roger Day Jr., who described Holton as a good shot and good kid. “It’s just hard to accept."

Tom and Linda said Shane Holton hadn’t talked with them much about joining the military until they received a phone call while on vacation that he’d signed up for the U.S. Army. After returning home, his parents sat down with Holton and a recruiter out of Grand Blanc.

Linda Holton recalled the recruiter asking her son why he wanted to join the military, since his parents were handling his bills at the time.

His response to the question resonates with Linda Holton to this very day.

“He said 'I want to serve my country,'” she said. “That was a pretty big statement.”

After completing high school, Shane Holton entered basic training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. While at first he thought about being a bomb technician, he later decided to make a go at intelligence, given his fondness for all things technological, his father said.

His parents traveled down to Fort Jackson for Holton’s basic training graduation ceremony. Tom Holton recalled the graduates coming out of the trees following some fanfare with flash grenades and smoke bombs just prior to their arrival.

“All of a sudden you hear a roar and they’re all coming out of the woods and they’re in their companies and units and everything,” he said. “It was really special.

“He had changed so much. Like I tell everybody, he was his own man,” Tom Holton said. “(We were) very proud of him and you could see him beaming in his eyes.”

Soon after, Shane Holton was sent to Fort Huachuca, Ariz. for advanced individual training, before he was asked to choose his next destination. After putting in a strong recommendation for Germany, Holton was sent to Fort Wainwright in July 2012.

Linda Holton said she thought he would like the wilderness, being an avid outdoorsman, taking trips up north to the family’s cabin in Sebawaing and plane flights in his father’s small aircraft back and forth on Tuesdays from Dalton Airport in Mt. Morris Township to Chesaning for ice cream when he was a child.

The family is expecting to hold a service sometime this week at Hill Funeral Home in Grand Blanc, with Holton's final resting place at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly.

“We went out there yesterday and it was so beautiful,” said Tom Holton of the cemetery, while scrolling through family photos on a large computer screen. “You never think about doing this, burying your kids. He loved being a soldier.”